Belmont provides challenge for Mario Gutierrez, I'll Have Another

VANCOUVER - Chris Loseth has never raced in the Belmont Stakes, but he knows a thing or two about Belmont Park, and what Mario Gutierrez will be going up against in his bid for a Triple Crown on Saturday.

Loseth, aboard Kid Katabatic, rode in the Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont Park in 1997, finishing 12th in that event. It was his first time at the New York track, which hosts the third jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown. Loseth couldn’t help but marvel at its size, an all-too-familiar feeling for those who step foot — or hoof — onto the 1½-mile track with hopes of victory.

“There’s no other race track like it in North America,” said Loseth, who is good friends with Gutierrez, the Hastings Racecourse jockey from 2006 to 2011 who is now one win away from capturing the Triple Crown, aboard Reddam Racing’s I’ll Have Another.

“I won’t say that you can’t win on it the first time, but I think that you have to be very patient.”

The 25-year-old Gutierrez has captured the heart of the sporting world.

It starts with his story of growing up with very few possessions in the small farming town of Veracruz, Mexico; to his recruitment to Hastings and Vancouver after being discovered at a track in Mexico City; to his come-from-behind win May 5 at the Kentucky Derby despite being a 15-1 underdog; to his win at the Preakness Stakes on May 19.

Now he rides for what could be the first Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978.

Since then, 11 different jockey-horse combinations poised for the coveted title have faltered on Belmont soil. There have been only 11 Triple Crown winners since 1919.

Gutierrez will get some mounts at Belmont Park before Saturday, but do the circumstances — the dash for history, the further fame and fortune, and the long track – intimidate him?

“I’m going to do my homework, you know?” said Gutierrez last Thursday, during a press conference in Vancouver.

“Nobody believed in the horse for the Kentucky Derby. They [said] I was going to melt down, too. Many people. They said the same thing for the Preakness … You can’t change the way people think. I just want to be there, at my best, because my horse will be at his best. And whatever is meant to happen will happen.”

Despite his two victories last month, Gutierrez is not without his critics.

Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux told the Baltimore Sun that both a first-time jockey and a first-time horse would be “lost” at Belmont Park — “I don’t care how much you try to explain it.”

Desormeaux rode Big Brown at the Belmont Stakes in 2008. The jockey-horse combo were riding for the Triple Crown, but proved unsuccessful in their bid.

Then there was the most recent review of Gutierrez’s race at the Preakness from Hall of Fame rider Jerry Bailey, who will be part of NBC’s coverage of the Belmont, as an analyst.

“He rode a very smart race, a very cool race,” Bailey told the NBC Sports website about Gutierrez in the Kentucky Derby.

“I don’t, however, share the same opinion in the Preakness. I think personally that he misjudged the pace a little bit and the horse bailed him out.

“He was farther back than I would have been. I think he gave Bodemeister too big of an edge with the [modest] pace. He still won, so I guess he rode a good enough race. But I still think the horse came to his rescue with the amazing finish he had. I think he was just too cool about it. He lets his horses spread the turns. He doesn’t ride real tight.”

Gutierrez said he will stick with what has brought him success, vowing not to alter his style in the days leading up to what will be the biggest race of his career.

“I’m not going to change the way I ride. We’re not going to change what we’re doing. We’re going to do just the same,” said Gutierrez.

“I’m going to let him run this race. I know when I’m going to ask him, he’s going to give me his best, because he has given that in the past and he won’t disappoint me,” he said of I’ll Have Another.

Describing a first-timers experience at Belmont Park as “surreal,” Loseth said there isn’t one particular key to taming the circuit, but that success will depend on the horse’s racing style.

“I think that he is very versatile,” said Loseth, who was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, four years removed from a horse racing career that included 3,668 wins in more than 26,000 races from 1974 to 2005.

“I think he can be up close to the lead and still have enough to finish with and I think if the pace is too fast, he’s easy enough to settle. If the rider has any idea of how fast the pace is in the race, he can place him to where he’s got the best chance to win.

“I think it’s a real fair distance and a real fair race track, and I think the best horse normally wins.”

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